National Money Helpline: Debt Solutions to your Money Problems

This site isn’t really that representative of a web 2.0 app but given the level of debt suffered in the world today it’s probably worthy of being visible on as many platforms as possible if it’s going to offer support to people in dire straits.

It’s probably also worth a review to point out the small print if nothing else as people with serious debt are often in panic mode and don’t stop to read the bit about fees written in type ten times smaller than the rest of the site.

The gist of the site is to make people aware that there are a number of options available to people who owe money and just can’t see their way out of it. The one interactive gadget appears on the homepage and throughout the site and is called the money problems questionnaire. This asks four basic questions; how much do you owe, across how many companies, monthly disposable income available and do both you and your partner work?

Answer these questions and hit “results” and you will be taken to a page setting out the basic options like debt management, IVA’s, debt relief orders, debt consolidation or in severe cases bankruptcy.

All of these solutions obviously require someone to manage and administrate them as in most cases a level of negotiation with creditors will be required. Once a solution is accepted then on-going monthly contributions to the plan will also have to be managed and this is how National Money Helpline earn their crust.

For every monthly payment to an agreed plan they will deduct whichever is the higher of 17.5% or £25 as a service fee before paying anything over to creditors. Anyone looking at using this service should also be aware of the “initial fee” levied for setting up the agreement. This is made up of the first two monthly payments to the plan meaning creditors receive nothing until the third month.

ConclusionThe site offers sound advice and explanations about the options available for those in serious debt but it is not a charity. There are charities around offering similar services without actually adding to the debt so a thorough Google search would be my advice.